Fall 2005

E 322 • Pathology and Powers of Narrative

Course Description

This course will deal with various forms of human experience in terms of their contribution to the pathological alteration of life. I use "pathological" to refer to forms of violence, excess or disorder arising from love, hate, war, crime, terrorism, torture, poverty, madness and physical disease. The phenomena in question will be studied in terms of their subversion of or antagonism to authority--family, law, church, state--and their stimulus to forms of intellectual order narratively expressed in fiction and autobiography.

Grading Policy

The program of work for the course will include three 1500-word papers, each worth 25% of the course grade, and class participation, itself worth 25% of the grade. Students may if they prefer do one long paper of 4500 words worth 75% of the grade. If you choose to do this, you will submit two written progress reports due at appropriate moments in the semester. Needless to say, progress entails a process of revision.

Texts

Jean Racine, Phaedra, Tristan and Iseut; Charles Perrault, "Sleeping Beauty", "Blue Beard", "Tom Thumb", "Donkey Skin"; Aldous Huxley, The Devils of Loudun (extracts); Denis Diderot, The Nun; D.A.F. de Sade, "Eugenie de Franval", Scenes from the Terror; Alexis de Tocqueville, Recollections (extracts); Guy de Maupassant, "The Horla", "Fear," "The Hand"; Felix Youssoupoff, The Murder of Rasputin and its sequels; Blaise Cendrars, Lice (extracts); Colette, "Late June, 1940"; Marguerite Duras, The War (extracts); Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit; Henri Alleg, The Question; Jean Baudrillard, The Spirit of Terrorism; Paul Bowles, "The Delicate Prey"

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